Awareness week highlights issues in black community
Events at the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center addressed rape education, black history and hip hop.
Nov. 17, 2007
This week the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center played host to the 15th Annual Black Culture Awareness Week, a series of panels, speakers and get-togethers that highlighted important issues in the black community.
The center hosted a soul-food dinner Sunday, followed by guest speaker Lasana Hotep, the Student Success Coordinator for the Arizona State University Multicultural Student Center. His lecture centered on leadership, development and hip hop culture.
On Monday, Stronger Together Against Rape and the National Pan-Hellenic Council held the "Don't Stop, No, Stop" rape education forum.
About 40 students gathered Tuesday to listen and ask questions of MU history professor Robert Weems and Black Culture Center Director Nathan Stephens.
The two spoke about the Willie Lynch Letter, a letter outlining how slaves can work against each other. Scholars question whether or not Willie Lynch actually existed, but Weems said that the debate is inconsequential.
Divisions that existed among slaves continue to exist among black Americans, he said, regardless of whether they stemmed from such a letter.
"Our race is divided today by contemporary notions of class," Weems said.
Stephens said the ramifications and chains of psychological slavery continue to have an impact, particularly through barriers to trust, respect and interaction.
"Students on campus don't acknowledge each other," he said. "They don't talk to each other."
Stephens said that individualism creates the sentiment of selfishness, which harms communal efforts.
"Since then, individualism and a focus on self-gratification and getting ahead have taken over," Stephens said.
After Weems and Stephens opened the panel to questions from the audience, they discussed obstacles in the way of black progress today.
"Certain individuals in certain roles give the illusion that things have changed, even though improvements have not been that widespread," Weems said.
The panelists urged students to be the ones to change the American mindset and return to a sense of unity.
Political activist Jeff Johnson, known as Cousin Jeff on BET's Rap City, spoke in a presentation called "Hip Hop Generation vs. Old School."
"Black people get couched too much within the context of hip hop," Johnson said. "When you do that, there's a lot that gets left out."
Johnson discussed the differences between different generations, beginning with the civil rights movement and ending with today's society. One key difference, Johnson said, is the tendency of black Americans to forget their history.
"Black people are so forgiving and are not being honest about their history here in America," Johnson said.
Johnson said it's important to remember the past in realizing one's current identity and achieving social change. Johnson cited the Jewish community as a success model for this theory and referenced a motto within the Jewish community, "Never, never forget." Johnson emphasized the need to remember and retell black history, within and outside the United States, because a majority of black history within the United States has been oppressive.
"When you view who you are through the context of oppression you never fully accept the value of who you are," Johnson said.
Johnson also addressed the use of profanity in the black community.
"How can you justify calling each other niggers, like it's a good thing?" he asked. "That word has been used to define every aspect of oppression your people have been through. What hip hop does not have the ability to do is go back in time and change history."
Johnson said many youths look toward hip-hop icons to serve as role models. Johnson said that artists shouldn't be viewed as anything beyond entertainers.
He also said that all the negative aspects of hip hop could be traced back to flaws within past generations, specifically the civil rights era. He said sexism was common then with the absence of women leaders during the movement. Johnson said several black churches still uphold sexist practices in their refusal to allow women in the pulpit.
"You don't change hip hop then change the communities," he said. "Change the communities, and then you'll change hip hop."
Organizers ended the week with a skate party at Empire Roller Rink on Thursday.
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